AGI – “I have to admit that”“Christmas Vacation” slipped out of my handsOr something incredible happens with unprecedented success and participation for this 40-year-old film. Yesterday I was even interviewed by the ‘New York Times’: In America you can’t believe that a format can last after so many years and be such a resounding success.”
On the phone with AGI Enrico Vanzina, screenwriter of the 1983 film Directed by his brother Carlo (who passed away in 2018), he admits that he is overwhelmed by the love and passionate consensus of audiences of all ages for this film. To the curtain, where we are having a three-day 40th anniversary celebration that ends todaythe Roman screenwriter and director is the protagonist of an evening on the red carpetcinematic and meta-cinematic with a dinner in the Salon Dolomieu of the Hotel Posta.
“I am literally overwhelmed by this success,” he says, “and perhaps I can explain it to myself by thinking that in a complicated moment like this, when, beyond wars and inflation, there is impoverishment of the middle class, families find themselves in.” Often in serious economic difficulties, this film represents a kind of positive inspiration. People are rediscovering the preference for lightness that existed back then and that everyone would like to find again.”
“Christmas Vacation” was released in 1983 and it told the story of society in the 80s. “At the time it seemed like it was just a film about the present,” he explains, “but instead it lasted 40 years and tells of a moment that many regret. The most surprising thing,” he continues, “is its continued success.” Young people have chosen this film and their prejudices against the 80s have been broken down; “Today’s children are very passionate about film.”
The film, Enrico Vanzina explains further: “It’s a comedy, but it’s about the new bourgeoisie This is coming and there is a little social conflict with the rich.” In a difficult moment like the current one, a look into the past can perhaps be reassuring. “I don’t know if that’s what it’s about,” replies the screenwriter and director – another film of ours was certainly released in cinemas a few months before “Christmas Vacation”, “Taste of the Sea”also very successful and still popular after 40 years: it told the story of the boom of the 1960s, a time that we regret today.”
“Christmas Holidays” was released on December 23, 1983 and is considered a forerunner of the so-called “Cinepanettoni”. A term used by critics that the Vanzina brothers have never loved, although this type of film has often been associated with them, although the authors have been different over the years (Enrico Oldoini and Neri Parenti). “In reality we only made two, the one from 1983 and ‘Vacanze di Natale 2000’,” says Vanzina, but Aurelio De Laurentiis (producer of all the “Cinepanettoni”, editor’s note) is a great entrepreneur and has this in the name of understood “Seriality could exploit the trend that started with our film 40 years ago. In my opinion, it was good to industrialize this product.”
However, Enrico Vanzina claims the “diversity” of his “Christmas Holidays” compared to the classic “Cinepanettoni”, a diversity that allows this film to still live and have great success even after 40 years. “I realize how the true value of a film fades over time,” he tells AGI again. “My father (Steno, editor’s note) told me that when he was filming “Guardies and Thieves” with Toto and Aldo Fabrizi or “An American in” and “Rome” with Alberto Sordi, he knew very well that they would remain over time, their power would not be exhausted, because only time gives the dimension of a film’s value.
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